Live Chat Unavailable Tuesday, December 16th, 2am to Wednesday, December 17th, 2am PST

Our Live Chat support system will be unavailable this coming Tuesday, December 16th, from 2am to 2am PST (the following morning, 24hours). We will be involving our support staff in our year’s end team meeting. We’ll be taking a company-wide look at the last few months and discuss our performance and improvements moving forward. Our aim is to offer the best service possible and we feel this meeting will only help to improve our Live Chat team’s performance. This was previously announced as being between Tuesday December 16th at 12am till Wednesday, December 17th at 12am, but has been revised to provide the best coverage possible based on our staff’s schedules.

Email support operations will still be available, should you need to get in touch with us. We will resume normal Live Chat operations at 2am PDT the next morning, December 17th. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Scheduled DreamCompute Maintenance – December 4th 11am PST (4hrs) (RESOLVED)

On Thursday December 4th from 11AM to 3PM, our cloud engineering team will be investigating a known, intermittent connectivity issue. The team will be working in coordination with one of our networking vendors to diagnose the matter and plan a resolution. We expect network availability to remain consistent, though there is a possibility your instances will be temporarily unavailable during the maintenance window.

We will closely monitor the maintenance and will be posting periodic updates. This maintenance window only affects the DreamCompute service.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact support for assistance.

Update December 4th, 2014, 12:45PM PDT: The maintenance has been completed. We performed some upgrades and first tests show the expected results. We will continue to test, evaluate and see if any further changes are needed in future maintenance periods. If you see any issues with your DreamCompute service after this maintenance please contact support.

Update December 4th, 2014, 12:30PM PDT: At this point we have upgraded software on 2 of our 6 network switches. Due to the redundant nature there appears to be no downtime related to this change. We will continue the upgrades and investigation. If you see issues that could be related to this maintenance please contact support.

Update December 4th, 2014, 12:00PM PDT: Maintenance investigation continues. No restarts or changes have been made yet that would cause any issues. We will continue to monitor the situation and update you through the maintenance window. – Justin

Update December 4th, 2014, 11:30AM PDT: Preparations for the investigation and upgrade are still ongoing at this time. We expect to start the actual changes within the next 30 minutes. – Justin

Scheduled DreamObjects Maintenance – December 9th 10am PST (24hrs) (RESOLVED)

As part of our continued efforts to improve our cloud services, on Tuesday December 9th from 10am to Wednesday December 10th 10am, our Systems Engineering team will be performing maintenance on our DreamObjects service. During this maintenance window, you may intermittently experience slower upload and access speeds and some short periods of connectivity loss. Please rest assured that your data is safe and will not be affected.

The purpose of this maintenance is to update the configuration of Ceph, the underlying storage technology powering DreamObjects. The team is making the configuration change to prepare the cluster for additional capacity. The change will trigger the cluster to re-optimize the arrangement of its data and is likely to cause inconsistent availability. The bulk of the optimization will complete within the first few hours and will diminish throughout the day.

We will closely monitor the maintenance and will be posting periodic updates. This maintenance window only affects DreamObjects and the manual account backup feature.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact support for assistance.

Update December 10th, 2014, 10:00AM PDT: The maintenance window is now closed, and the maintenance is complete. We did not detect any issues with the DreamObjects service during the last 24 hours and we are now one step closer to an upgraded and expanded DreamObjects cluster. If you notice any issues since the maintenance please contact support and we would be happy to assist you further. – Justin

Update December 9th, 2014, 15:00PM PDT: The maintenance window remains open and we are monitoring the cluster. There have been no issues to report after the configuration changes, and we are keeping the window open just in case. If you notice any issues please contact support. – Justin

Update December 9th, 2014, 12:00PM PDT: The maintenance window remains open and the cluster is still adjusting to the configuration changes. All services are reporting up and working normally and we will continue to monitor the situation. – Justin

Update December 9th, 2014, 10:50AM PDT: The maintenance continues. The cluster has adjusted to the configuration changes exactly as expected so far, and will continue to adjust to the changes the next few hours. – Justin

Update December 9th, 2014, 10:20AM PDT: The maintenance has begun. The configuration changes we wanted to make have been applied and we are monitoring the cluster as it adjusts to this change. We will update this post again in regular intervals or sooner if there is any information to pass along. – Justin

Scheduled DreamObjects Maintenance – December 2nd 10am PST (24hrs) (POSTPONED – see new post above)

As part of our continued efforts to improve our cloud services, on Monday December 1st from 10am to Tuesday December 2nd 10am, our Systems Engineering team will be performing maintenance on our DreamObjects service. During this maintenance window, you may intermittently experience slower upload and access speeds and some short periods of connectivity loss. Please rest assured that your data is safe and will not be affected.

The purpose of this maintenance is to update the configuration of Ceph, the underlying storage technology powering DreamObjects. The team is making the configuration change to prepare the cluster for additional capacity. A consequence of this change is an expected rebalance of the data to optimize the storage cluster. The bulk of the rebalance and optimization will complete within the first few hours and will diminish throughout the day.

We will closely monitor the maintenance and will be posting periodic updates.
Please note, this maintenance was originally scheduled for December 1st, 10am PST. However, based upon feedback, we delayed it to the 2nd (Tuesday) to minimize any potential impact for our customers.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact support for assistance.

Update December 2nd, 2014, 2PM PST: Apologies for the late notice: this maintenance has been postponed until next week. There is additional prep work to complete before making the configuration change and it is not yet concluded. We’ll be adding a new status post with the details.

WordPress 4.0.1 – Security Release

WordPress 4.0.1 is now available as a security release for all previous versions of WordPress, and is being applied now to all sites who allow for Background Updates in WordPress, as well as any who use our Auto Update via Panel.

In fact… you may have already been emailed about this by your install.

You can read the release notes for 4.0.1, and this release is coordinated with a Drupal release, as both projects share a potential vulnerability (due to an issue in PHP) that could cause a denial of service attack. The upgrade applies to WordPress versions 4.0.1, 3.9.3, 3.8.5, and 3.7.5.

As a reminder, WordPress itself performs background updates of all minor releases, since WordPress 3.7 was released in 2013. That means even if you have disabled auto updates via panel (which you’d never do, because updating is the best thing since sliced bread), WordPress will still upgrade your 3.7, 3.8, and 3.9 installs to the latest, most secure, version.

If for whatever reason you went and disabled all possible update methods to your site, please log in to your WordPress site now, head to Dashboard → Updates and simply click “Update Now.” It’s just that easy.

Speaking of updates …. WordPress 4.1 is due out in December! Now’s the time to have a look at your sites and make sure all your plugins and themes are up-to-date in preparation for some cool new features. You may even want to upgrade your PHP settings in panel to PHP 5.4, just to be extra cool.

Emergency maintenance on shared web server ‘fullback’ [RESOLVED]

Our shared web server, ‘fullback’ is in need of an emergency memory replacement, which will be starting shortly.

We expect the maintenance window to last about a half hour and we will be updating this status post with updates as needed.

Please note, this post is only regarding the above upcoming maintenance. If you are having any issues with your hosting service outside the maintenance window, or regarding any other services, please submit a support ticket through DreamHost panel with your details so we can help!

Update – 6:57 am PST: Maintenance is complete! All services on ‘fullback’ are back up and running. Thank you for your patience!

Scheduled DreamCompute Maintenance – November 17th, 6AM PST (30 min) (RESOLVED)

As part of our continued efforts to improve our cloud services, on Monday, November 17th, from 6am-6:30am PST, our cloud engineering team will be performing maintenance on our DreamCompute service. The maintenance work is minor and is limited to a configuration change for the compute and network component services. During this maintenance window, you may experience short periods of connectivity loss to your instances. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Update November 17th, 2014, 7:44AM PST: The changes for this maintenance are complete and our testing shows the system working normally. This maintenance is now complete. Should you still run into any issues with DreamCompute, please report it to tech support and we will get it checked out immediately. – Justin

Update November 17th, 2014, 6:30AM PST: Work is continuing on this configuration change, but we do not expect any further disruption in service for customers. We will keep this status post open until all work is complete so that customers are aware and can report issues to tech support if any do arise. Thanks for your patience during this maintenance process. – Justin

Scheduled Network Maintenance for Homiemail-sub5 Email Cluster and subset of Mysql Servers in US-West (Los Angeles) Data Center – November 6th, 10pm PST (4hrs) (RESOLVED)

We will be conducting maintenance in our US-West (Los Angeles) Data Center starting at 10pm PST on November 6th. The purpose of the maintenance is to upgrade the capacity of the networking hardware to these machines and improve overall redundancy. We are scheduling a window of four hours for thorough pre and post testing, but the actual service interruption will be minimal. We will be closely monitoring the process and will be posting updates as we progress.

Please note, this maintenance affects a subset of mysql servers (see below for the full list) and the mail traffic on homiemail-sub5. No mail will be lost only queued up for later delivery. You can tell if you’re affected by checking for your mysql server and email cluster under the Account Status in your DreamHost panel. We appreciate your patience and understanding while we continue improving our networking system. We will open the comments as soon as we start the maintenance. Until then, if you have any questions or concerns, please let us know by contacting tech support.

The list of affected mysql servers:
straptail
stonefish
stonecat
surgeonfish
stingfish
stickleback
switch
switch
sturgeon
sunfish
surfperch
steelhead
stargazer
squirrelfish
squaretail
squawfish
springfish
squeaker

Update November 7th, 2014, 12:45AM PST: We’re happy to report that maintenance is now complete. If you need any assistance related to this or anything else, please let us know by contacting tech support.

Update November 6th, 2014, 11:38PM PST: We are continuing with the maintenance as scheduled, and all the steps are being completed without impact on services. We appreciate you continued patience, and we’ll post another update within the hour or sooner if there is a status change.

Update November 6th, 2014, 10:38PM PST: So far so good! We will update this post again within the hour or if there is a status change.

Update November 6th, 2014, 10:05PM PST: We have started the maintenance as scheduled. Please keep an eye out for updates as we progress through the steps.

Upgrading 187 shared web hosting servers to Ubuntu 12.04 Precise – November 8th, 8PM – 2AM PST(RESOLVED)

We’re completing our roll-out of Ubuntu 12.04 Precise to the final 187 shared web servers  this Saturday, November 8th.  While the total estimated maintenance is 6 hours, we expect actual downtime due to the upgrade to be around 45 minutes. A large part of the maintenance window will be spent testing all of the servers post-upgrade to ensure everything is in order. While this upgrade process is expected to go smoothly, there are some things you can do to reduce the chances of additional service interruption. Customers running  Ruby or Python applications should ensure that they are not linking to static versions of any required libraries, as library versions will change. If you’re using a custom PHP.ini file or if you’re unsure, read the instructions on updating it here.   Here is the list of web servers to be upgraded. You can check if you’re one of these web servers by clicking the ‘Account Status’ link within the DreamHost panel and looking for ‘web server’:

abhainndearg

abraham-clark

afzelia

agave

agrajag

allitnil

andy

appling

ardbeg

aten

atum

auchentoshan

balin

balmenach

baratheon

bard

benrinnes

beorn

bernstein

bifur

blackboard

bocote

bofur

bowmore

brunswick

buckshot

bulldog

bungalow

butts

cactus

candler

carter-braxton

catoosa

cavalier

cement

charles-cotesworth

chausson

chavez

checkerboard

checkmate

chesterfield

chrysanthemum

clam

clarke

daily

dancer

daylily

decatur

deckhand

delpuerto

dickenson

dindy

dinwiddie

dodge

dori

dwalin

early

echols

edradour

effingham

evans

fauquier

finley

fireplug

fistfight

foxcraft

franklin

george-ross

george-wythe

glen-elgin

glen-grant

glendronach

glenfiddich

glengoyne

glengyle

glenkinchie

glenlivet

glenlossie

glentauchers

gloucester

goochland

grady

halifax

hancock

hanson

hapi

hart

heard

heimdallr

hodhr

hoenir

horsetail

hovhaness

hugh-williamson

invergordon

isle-of-wight

kininvie

kittyhawk

kneecap

knockdhu

lanier

lumpkin

lyman-hall

maat

macon

madison

mahler

matthew-thornton

meriwether

mignone

miltonduff

mirfak

monroe

montgomery

moonflower

naos

nelson

nihal

nottoway

oin

page

paulding

phact

pierce

poplar

prince-george

prince-william

ptah

pulteney

quitman

ra

rana

reshep

richard-dobbs

richmond

rimsky-korsakov

roanoke

rockbridge

roseisle

russell

sadira

saint-saens

santoro

sawhorse

scapa

scheat

screven

segin

shenandoah

sheoak

signature

skymaster

smelter

snotra

spectator

spotsylvania

springbank

stanford

starlaw

sterope-ii

strathisla

strathmill

stutter

sugarfoot

tamdhu

tazewell

telfair

the-macallan

thomas-heyward-jr

tinkerbell

tool

tracer

transit

trapline

treasure

twiggs

union

vroomfondel

walker

warren

westmoreland

williamson

wise

wonko

york

zem

zwilich

4 Responses to “Upgrading 187 shared web hosting servers to Ubuntu 12.04 Precise – November 8th, 8PM – 2AM PST(RESOLVED)”

Live Chat Unavailable Saturday October 25th 4pm – Sunday October 26th 4pm PDT

Our Live Chat support system will be unavailable this coming Saturday, October 25th, from 4pm to 4pm PDT (the following afternoon). We will be involving our support staff in our annual Halloween party, rewarding them for their excellent service and hard work! We aim to offer the best service possible and we feel our team deserves it!

Email support operations will still be available, should you need to get a hold of us. We will resume normal Live Chat operations at 4pm PDT the next afternoon, Oct 26th. We thank you for your patience and understanding.

9 Responses to “Live Chat Unavailable Saturday October 25th 4pm – Sunday October 26th 4pm PDT”

HTTPS Web Site Owners – SSL v.3 Disablement

DreamHost has disabled SSL v.3 across our network. After 18 years of being available as an option for encryption & security in browser communications, the SSL 3.0 protocol has finally met it’s demise in the form of a not so cuddly POODLE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POODLE) attack.

DreamHosters with HTTPS enabled on their web sites are the only customers that will be affected. You can verify if you have SSL enabled on your domain, here. Visitors whose web browsers do not support the more modern TLS protocol will not be able to negotiate a Secure connection.

The good news is those antique browsers are largely retired from use. The most modern browser that will be unable to negotiate a secure connection with SSL v.3’s disablement is Internet Explorer 6.0 with Windows NT 4.0, released Aug 2001. Please don’t hesitate to contact our support team with any further questions in this matter.

DreamObjects Service Connectivity Issues (RESOLVED)

Our cloud engineering team is investigating connectivity issues being reported by the DreamObjects service. We do not currently have an estimate as to how long it will take to restore services. All data stored in DreamObjects is safe and we will continue to update this post as we gather more information.

Please note, this does not affect any other DreamHost services, this is specific to DreamObjects.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact support for assistance.

Update October 16th, 2014, 9:50AM PDT:DreamObjects service continues to be working and work continues on backend hardware replacement and improvements. We will continue to monitor our systems for further issues.

Update October 16th, 2014, 9:20AM PDT:Service has been restored at this time, and work is continuing on the backend to fix remaining issues and replace some hardware. We will continue to monitor our systems for further issues.

Update October 16th, 2014, 9:00AM PDT: Our team of cloud administrators and developers are continuing to work on the issue and are making progress. We apologize for the issues with DreamObjects this morning and appreciate your patience while we resolve this issue.

Upgrading 150 shared web hosting servers to Ubuntu 12.04 Precise – October 18th, 8PM – 1AM PDT (RESOLVED)

We’re continuing our roll-out of Ubuntu 12.04 Precise to an additional 150 web servers this Saturday, October 18th. As we’d like to get all of our customers over to this new OS, we will be upgrading 2 batches per week. While the total estimated maintenance is 5 hours, we expect actual downtime due to the upgrade to be around 45 minutes. A large part of the maintenance window will be spent testing all of the servers post-upgrade to ensure everything is in order.

As the Ubuntu image will not support PHP5.2, anyone who still has this version of PHP selected in the panel will be migrated to a Debian server before these web servers are upgraded, and will still have until the November deadline to upgrade to a more recent version of PHP.

While this upgrade process is expected to go smoothly, there are some things you can do to reduce the chances of additional service interruption. Customers running  Ruby or Python applications should ensure that they are not linking to static versions of any required libraries, as library versions will change. If you’re using a custom PHP.ini file or if you’re unsure, read the instructions on updating it here.

Here is the list of web servers to be upgraded. You can check if you’re one of these web servers by clicking the ‘Account Status’ link within the DreamHost panel and looking for ‘web server’:

aberfeldy
aberlour
aker
alltabhainne
ammit
andriessen
apophis
ardmore
arran
atterberg
atum
auchinblae
auchroisk
bakha
balbair
bat
beech
bennevis
benriach
benromach
bizet
blacktop
bladnoch
blairathol
bliss
brackla
braeval
brian
britten
broadside
bruckner
bruichladdich
buckingham
cameronbridge
carroll
chamomile
charles-city
chatham
cherry
cloudburst
corydalis
cragganmore
craigellachie
dade
dagr
dalmore
dalwhinnie
danielpour
davies
deanston
debussy
deepthought
delling
draeseke
eddie
effingham
fan
fettercairn
fireplug
forseti
franck
geb
gillis
girvan
glascock
glazunov
glen-garioch
glen-moray
glen-scotia
glen-spey
glenallachie
glencadam
glendullan
glenfarclas
glenglassaugh
glenmorangie
glenrothes
glenturret
gloin
gmot
goldmark
guerra-peixe
haralson
hartmann
hathor
heget
hickory
highland-park
hindemith
holmboe
iounn
isle-of-jura
joro
kellaa
khnum
khonsu
kilchoman
king-george
knockando
lalo
linkwood
lochnagar
longmorn
macduff
madison
mafdet
magni
mannochmore
marblewood
melartin
messiaen
mimir
mortlach
mozart
muliphein
nielsen
nighthawk
nystroem
oban
odin
pallando
penderecki
persichetti
porrima
radagast
ras-alhague
rubbra
saga
sarir
saruman
sasin
satis
schubert
shaula
sif
sjofn
springtime
stagecoach
still
strathclyde
strauss
stravinsky
suhail
suk
sumter
tienkwan
tobermory
toch
tournemire
tubin
tullibardine
vivaldi
wagner
wheels
widor
wolfburn

 

If you have any concerns leading up to the upgrade, please don’t hesitate to contact our support team. They’ll be more than happy to answer any questions you might have!
While the upgrade is ongoing, we’ll keep this post up-to-date with new information as it becomes available. If you’d like to know more about the benefits resulting from our switch to Ubuntu, please read this post.

Update October 19th, 2014, 12:18AM PDT: The Ubuntu upgrades have completed and all batches are now back online. The following web servers were not upgraded, and will be upgraded at later date: zem vroomfondel baratheon effingham fireplug.

Update October 18th, 2014, 11:41PM PDT: Batch #1(“aberfeldy” through “cherry”)  has now completed the upgrade to Ubuntu. Batch #2 (“cloudburst” through “goldmark”) has now completed. Batch #3(“guerra-peixe” through “penderecki”) machines are all complete. Batch #4(“persichetti” through “wolfburn”) is complete other than”tienkwan”.

Update October 18th, 2014, 11:31PM PDT: Batch #1(“aberfeldy” through “cherry”)  has now completed the upgrade to Ubuntu. Batch #2 (“cloudburst” through “goldmark”) has now completed. Batch #3(“guerra-peixe” through “penderecki”) machines are all complete. Batch #4(“persichetti” through “wolfburn”) is complete other than “stagecoach”, “wheels”, “tienkwan”, “saruman”, “strauss”.

Update October 18th, 2014, 11:22PM PDT: Batch #1(“aberfeldy” through “cherry”)  has now completed the upgrade to Ubuntu. Batch #2 (“cloudburst” through “goldmark”) has now completed. Batch #3(“guerra-peixe” through “penderecki”) machines are all complete other than “pallando”. Batch #4(“persichetti” through “wolfburn”) is complete other than “stagecoach”, “wheels”, “tienkwan”, “saruman”, “strauss”.

Update October 18th, 2014, 11:05PM PDT: Batch #1(“aberfeldy” through “cherry”)  has now completed the upgrade to Ubuntu. Batch #2 (“cloudburst” through “goldmark”) has now completed. Batch #3(“guerra-peixe” through “penderecki”) machines are all complete other than “pallando”. Batch #4(“persichetti” through “wolfburn”) has completed the OS installation phase, and is entering the final configuration stage.

Update October 18th, 2014, 10:48PM PDT: Batch #1(“aberfeldy” through “cherry”)  has now completed the upgrade to Ubuntu. Batch #2 (“cloudburst” through “goldmark”) has now completed. Batch #3(“guerra-peixe” through “penderecki”) machines are all complete other than haralson, madfet, pallando, king-george.. Batch #4(“persichetti” through “wolfburn”) has finished the backup phase and has entered the OS installation phase.

Update October 18th, 2014, 10:35PM PDT: Batch #1(“aberfeldy” through “cherry”)  has now completed the upgrade to Ubuntu. Batch #2 (“cloudburst” through “goldmark”)  is complete other than”davies”. Batch #3(“guerra-peixe” through “penderecki”) machines are all complete other than haralson, madfet, pallando, king-george.. Batch #4(“persichetti” through “wolfburn”) has finished the backup phase and has entered the OS installation phase.

Update October 18th, 2014, 10:26PM PDT: Batch #1(“aberfeldy” through “cherry”)  has now completed the upgrade to Ubuntu. Batch #2 (“cloudburst” through “goldmark”)  is complete other than “glascock” and “davies”. Batch #3(“guerra-peixe” through “penderecki”) machines are beginning to come back online. Batch #4(“persichetti” through “wolfburn”) has finished the backup phase and has entered the OS installation phase.

Update October 18th, 2014, 10:13PM PDT: Batch #1(“aberfeldy” through “cherry”)  has now completed the upgrade to Ubuntu. Batch #2 (“cloudburst” through “goldmark”)  is complete other than “glascock” and “davies”. Batch #3(“guerra-peixe” through “penderecki”) machines are beginning to come back online. Batch #4(“persichetti” through “wolfburn”) has begun the backup phase.

Update October 18th, 2014, 10:04PM PDT: Batch #1(“aberfeldy” through “cherry”)  has now completed the upgrade to Ubuntu. Batch #2 (“cloudburst” through “goldmark”)  is complete other than “glascock” and “davies”. Batch #3(“guerra-peixe” through “penderecki”) machines are beginning to come back online.

Update October 18th, 2014, 9:54PM PDT: Batch #1(“aberfeldy” through “cherry”)  has now completed the upgrade to Ubuntu. Batch #2 (“cloudburst” through “goldmark”)  is complete other than “glascock” and “davies”. Batch #3(“guerra-peixe” through “penderecki”) is nearing completion of the OS installation phase and will be entering the configuration phase.

Update October 18th, 2014, 9:45PM PDT: Batch #1(“aberfeldy” through “cherry”)  has now completed the upgrade to Ubuntu. Batch #2 (“cloudburst” through “goldmark”)  is nearing completion and sites are coming online now. Batch #3 has begun the OS installation phase.

Update October 18th, 2014, 9:41PM PDT:Batch #3(“guerra-peixe” through “penderecki”) has now begun the OS installation phase.

Update October 18th, 2014, 9:38PM PDT: All servers from Batch #1 (“aberfeldy” through “cherry”) are now back online other than the following servers:

charles-city
carroll

Sites on Batch #2(“cloudburst” through “goldmark”) are now coming back online.

Update October 18th, 2014, 9:25PM PDT:Sites on Batch #1  (“aberfeldy” through “cherry”)  are now beginning to come back online post-upgrade. Batch #2 (“cloudburst” through “goldmark”) has finished the OS installation phase and is beginning final configurations.

Update October 18th, 2014, 9:07PM PDT:Sites on Batch #1  (“aberfeldy” through “cherry”)  are now all complete other than the 4 following servers:

aker
bliss
charles-city
carroll

 

Batch #2 (“cloudburst” through “goldmark”) has begun the OS installation phase.

Update October 18th, 2014, 9:02PM PDT: Sites on Batch #1  (“aberfeldy” through “cherry”)  are now beginning to come back online post-upgrade. Batch #2 (“cloudburst” through “goldmark”) has begun the backup phase.

Update October 18th, 2014, 8:55PM PDT: Batch #2 (“cloudburst” through “goldmark”) has begun the backup phase.

Update October 18th, 2014, 8:44PM PDT:  Batch #1 (“aberfeldy” through “cherry”) has finished the OS installation phase and is entering the configuration phase.

Update October 18th, 2014, 8:20PM PDT:  Batch #1 (“aberfeldy” through “cherry”) has finished the backup phase, and is now entering the OS installation stage.

Update October 18th, 2014, 8:13PM PDT: We’ll be running 4 batches of 40 web servers tonight. There are 3 major phases, which are the backup phase, the OS installation phase, and the configuration phase.  We’ve now begun the backup phase for Batch #1 (“aberfeldy” through “cherry”).

Upgrading 150 shared web hosting servers to Ubuntu 12.04 Precise – October 12th, 8PM – 1AM PDT (RESOLVED)

We’re continuing our roll-out of Ubuntu 12.04 Precise to an additional 150 web servers this Sunday, October 12th. As we’d like to get all of our customers over to this new OS, we will be upgrading 2 batches per week. While the total estimated maintenance is 5 hours, we expect actual downtime due to the upgrade to be around 45 minutes. A large part of the maintenance window will be spent testing all of the servers post-upgrade to ensure everything is in order.

As the Ubuntu image will not support PHP5.2, anyone who still has this version of PHP selected in the panel will be migrated to a Debian server before these web servers are upgraded, and will still have until the November deadline to upgrade to a more recent version of PHP.

While this upgrade process is expected to go smoothly, there are some things you can do to reduce the chances of additional service interruption. Customers running  Ruby or Python applications should ensure that they are not linking to static versions of any required libraries, as library versions will change. If you’re using a custom PHP.ini file or if you’re unsure, read the instructions on updating it here.

Here is the list of web servers to be upgraded. You can check if you’re one of these web servers by clicking the ‘Account Status’ link within the DreamHost panel and looking for ‘web server’:

abraham-baldwin
acrobat
albemarle
amelia
amherst
appomattox
arthur-dent
augusta
backseat
bamboo
bandbox
banks
bartow
baseball
bath
benjamin-harrison
bigtop
blacktop
blueprint
bombur
bookstore
bryan
buchanan
buckingham
bulloch
centurion
challenger
charles-pickney
charlotte
chatham
cherokee
claw
coachwood
coffee
columbia
cook
coweta
crawford
crisp
crystal
dain
daniel-carroll
deacon
diamond
dire
durin
eddie
effingham
elrond
essex
evergreen
fadeaway
fan
fannin
fayette
fencing
fireplug
flivver
ford-prefect
frederick
giles
glascock
gloin
glynn
gwinnett
habersham
hall
halo
hanover
haralson
henrico
henry
highland
hotshot
instructor
james-city
jenkins
josiah-bartlett
kili
king-william
lancaster
lee
long
loudoun
lunenburg
magnolia
marion
miller
morgan
morinehtar
nighthawk
nori
northumberland
patroller
pickens
pierce-butler
pike
pivot
polk
powhatan
prince-edward
putnam
randolph
regor
rockingham
sadalmelik
saiph
samuel-chase
sandbox
saruman
schley
scott
seminole
sheliak
skat
slacrl
snapshot
snowstorm
softpack
stardust
stewart
sugi
sussex
sycamore
talbot
templer
terrell
thrain
thror
tift
toombs
towns
tracker
traffic
trail
treutlen
tricia-mcmillan
tureis
walton
ware
warehouse
wheels
wilcox
wilkes
william-floyd
worth
wythe
zaphod-beeblebrox

 

If you have any concerns leading up to the upgrade, please don’t hesitate to contact our support team. They’ll be more than happy to answer any questions you might have!
While the upgrade is ongoing, we’ll keep this post up-to-date with new information as it becomes available. If you’d like to know more about the benefits resulting from our switch to Ubuntu, please read this post.

Update October 13th, 2014, 12:19AM PDT: The maintenance has now completed. If you find that you’re experiencing any issues with your website(s) please contact support via the link above.

Update October 12th, 2014, 11:54PM PDT: ‘sugi’ is now back online, and only ‘tureis’ and ‘william-floyd’ remain.

Update October 12th, 2014, 11:50PM PDT: The web server ‘skat’ has completed it’s upgrade to Ubuntu and only ‘sugi’, ‘tureis’ and ‘william-floyd’ remain incomplete.

Update October 12th, 2014, 11:34PM PDT: All web servers have completed the upgrade to Ubuntu other than the following four:

skat
sugi
tureis
william-floyd

We expect them to be fully back on-line soon and will update this post when we have new information.

Update October 12th, 2014, 10:50PM PDT: Batch #1 (‘abraham-baldwin’ through ‘crawford’) has completed and sites are back online. Sites on Batch #2 (‘crisp’ through ‘kili’) are all back online.

Batch #3 (‘king-william’ through ‘slacrl’) has completed other than the web server ‘skat’.

Servers from Batch #4 (‘snapshot’ through ‘zaphod-beeblebrox’) are now coming back online.

Update October 12th, 2014, 10:40PM PDT: Batch #1 (‘abraham-baldwin’ through ‘crawford’) has completed and sites are back online. Sites on Batch #2 (‘crisp’ through ‘kili’) are all back online other than the following servers:

crystal

Batch #3 (‘king-william’ through ‘slacrl’) has completed other than the following servers:

nori
pivot
skat

Batch #4 (‘snapshot’ through ‘zaphod-beeblebrox’) is still completing OS installation.

Update October 12th, 2014, 10:05PM PDT: Batch #1 (‘abraham-baldwin’ through ‘crawford’) has completed and sites are back online. Sites on Batch #2 (‘crisp’ through ‘kili’) are all back online other than the following servers:

crystal
fadeaway
ford-prefect
jenkins

Batch #3 (‘king-william’ through ‘slacrl’) has completed the backup phase and is beginning final configurations. Batch #4 (‘snapshot’ through ‘zaphod-beeblebrox’) has completed the backup phase and is beginning OS installation.

Update October 12th, 2014, 9:52PM PDT: Batch #1 (‘abraham-baldwin’ through ‘crawford’) has completed and sites are back online. Sites on Batch #2 (‘crisp’ through ‘kili’) are beginning to come back online. Batch #3 (‘king-william’ through ‘slacrl’) has completed the backup phase and is beginning final configurations. Batch #4 (‘snapshot’ through ‘zaphod-beeblebrox’) is beginning the backup phase.

Update October 12th, 2014, 9:48PM PDT: Batch #1 (‘abraham-baldwin’ through ‘crawford’) is complete other than the ‘charlotte’ web server, which is still running final configurations. Sites on Batch #2 (‘crisp’ through ‘kili’) are beginning to come back online. Batch #3 (‘king-william’ through ‘slacrl’) has completed the backup phase and is beginning final configurations. Batch #4 (‘snapshot’ through ‘zaphod-beeblebrox’) is beginning the backup phase.

Update October 12th, 2014, 9:34PM PDT: Batch #1 (‘abraham-baldwin’ through ‘crawford’) is complete other than the ‘charlotte’ web server, which is still running final configurations. Sites on Batch #2 (‘crisp’ through ‘kili’) are beginning to come back online. Batch #3 (‘king-william’ through ‘slacrl’) has completed the backup phase and is now beginning the OS installation phase.

Update October 12th, 2014, 9:28PM PDT: Batch #1 (‘abraham-baldwin’ through ‘crawford’) is complete other than the ‘charlotte’ web server, which is still running final configurations. Sites on Batch #2 (‘crisp’ through ‘kili’) are beginning to come back online. Batch #3 (‘king-william’ through ‘slacrl’) is now beginning the backup phase.

Update October 12th, 2014, 9:04PM PDT:Batch #1 (‘abraham-baldwin’ through ‘crawford’)  is now beginning to complete the configuration phase, and sites should be coming back online shortly. Batch #2 (‘crisp’ through ‘kili’) has completed the backup phase and is beginning the OS installation phase.

Update October 12th, 2014, 8:49PM PDT: Batch #1 (‘abraham-baldwin’ through ‘crawford’) is now beginning to complete the OS installation phase, and the configuration stage is beginning. Batch #2 (‘crisp’ through ‘kili’) is now beginning the backup phase.

Update October 12th, 2014, 8:20PM PDT: Batch #1 (‘abraham-baldwin’ through ‘crawford’) has completed the backup phase and is now rebooting for OS installation.

Upgrading 150 shared web hosting servers to Ubuntu 12.04 Precise – October 11th, 8PM – 1AM PDT (RESOLVED)

We’re continuing our roll-out of Ubuntu 12.04 Precise to an additional 150 web servers this Saturday, October 11th. As we’d like to get all of our customers over to this new OS, we will be upgrading 2 batches per week. While the total estimated maintenance is 5 hours, we expect actual downtime due to the upgrade to be around 45 minutes. A large part of the maintenance window will be spent testing all of the servers post-upgrade to ensure everything is in order.

As the Ubuntu image will not support PHP5.2, anyone who still has this version of PHP selected in the panel will be migrated to a Debian server before these web servers are upgraded, and will still have until the November deadline to upgrade to a more recent version of PHP.

While this upgrade process is expected to go smoothly, there are some things you can do to reduce the chances of additional service interruption. Customers running  Ruby or Python applications should ensure that they are not linking to static versions of any required libraries, as library versions will change. If you’re using a custom PHP.ini file or if you’re unsure, read the instructions on updating it here.

Here is the list of web servers to be upgraded. You can check if you’re one of these web servers by clicking the ‘Account Status’ link within the DreamHost panel and looking for ‘web server’:

accomack
alleghany
appling
arlington
atkinson
barrow
beehive
bellhop
ben-hill
berrien
bibb
birdseye
bland
bleckley
boardwalk
botetourt
brimstone
broadside
byrch
cableboy
calico
camden
cameo
campbell
candlestick
carbine
carnation
caroline
carpet
cartwheel
chandelier
chariot
charlton
chattooga
chessman
christopher
clay
clayton
coach
coppertone
culpeper
cumberland
dade
dasher
david-brearley
deepthought
derby
dog
dooly
dougherty
douglas
dusty
elbert
emanuel
fili
flag
flotus
fluvanna
footprint
forefinger
forsyth
frankie
fullback
fulton
gandalf
gargravarr
george-taylor
george-washington
gordon
grayson
greensville
gunning-bedford
horsehide
horsepower
houston
jacob-broom
james-mchenry
james-wilson
jeff-davis
jefferson
john-adams
john-hart
john-rutledge
king-and-queen
king-george
lock
lotus
louisa
lowndes
marine
mathews
mcduffie
mcintosh
mecklenburg
middlesex
mitchell
murray
muscogee
new-kent
newton
nicholas-gilman
northampton
oconee
oliver-wolcott
ori
peach
peninsula
philip-livingston
pinafore
pittsylvania
potus
professor
pulaski
rabun
radagast
radiant
rawhide
roadhouse
robert-morris
rosebush
samuel-adams
smyth
southampton
spalding
springtime
stafford
stagecoach
staircase
starlight
stephen-hopkins
stephens
store
sunburn
sunshine
surry
taliaferro
tattnall
taylor
thomas
thomas-fitzsimmons
thomas-nelson-jr
turner
volcano
washington
wayne
white
whitfield
wilkinson
william-paca
william-paterson
william-whipple

If you have any concerns leading up to the upgrade, please don’t hesitate to contact our support team. They’ll be more than happy to answer any questions you might have!
While the upgrade is ongoing, we’ll keep this post up-to-date with new information as it becomes available. If you’d like to know more about the benefits resulting from our switch to Ubuntu, please read this post.

Update October 12th, 2014: 1:24AM PDT: The Ubuntu upgrade on the web server ‘chessman’ has completed. The maintenance has now completed. If you find that you’re experiencing any issues with your website(s) please contact support via the link above. The following web servers were not upgraded tonight, and will be upgraded at a future date:

stagecoach
king-george
radagast
deepthought
broadside
dade
springtime
culpeper

Update October 12th, 2014: 1:05AM PDT: All web servers from all batches other than ‘chessman’ have come back online. We expect this server to be on soon, and the maintenance will then be complete.

Update October 12th, 2014: 12:49AM PDT: All web servers from Batch #1 and Batch #2 are online. There are 5 web servers left from the remaining batches and we expect this maintenance to be completed shortly.

Update October 11th, 2014: 11:50PM PDT: All web servers from Batch #1 and Batch #2 are back up and running.

Update October 11th, 2014: 11:43PM PDT: All but one web server from Batch #1 is now online. 1 web server remains for Batch #2 and Batch #3 and Batch #4 are waiting on 7 each.

Update October 11th, 2014: 11:11PM PDT: All but one web server from Batch #1 is now online. 5 servers remain from Batch #2. Batch #3 is finishing up and Batch #4 is continuing with the OS installation phase.

Update October 11th, 2014: 10:45PM PDT: Almost all servers from Batch #1 and Batch #2 are online. Servers from Batch #3 are coming online now and Batch #4 has entered the OS installation phase.

Update October 11th, 2014: 10:32PM PDT: Almost all servers from Batch #1 and Batch#2 are online. Batch #3 is continuing the OS installation phase. Batch #4 (the final batch) has begun the backup phase.

Update October 11th, 2014: 10:25PM PDT: All but 10 servers from Batch #1 have completed installation. Servers on Batch #2 are beginning to come online now. Batch #3 has entered the OS installation phase.

Update October 11th, 2014: 9:53PM PDT: Websites from Batch #1 are continuing to come back online. Batch #2 is continuing OS installation and Batch #3 has started the backup phase.

Update October 11th, 2014: 9:44PM PDT: Websites from Batch #1 are now beginning to come back online. Batch #2 is progressing through OS installation.

Update October 11th, 2014: 9:30PM PDT: Batch #1 has completed OS installation and is now installing packages. Batch #2 will be starting OS installation momentarily.

Update October 11th, 2014: 9:11PM PDT:  The webserver ‘appling’ has been removed from tonight’s upgrades due to an active PHP5.2 user. Batch #2 has begun the backup phase, Batch #1 is still in the OS installation phase.

Update October 11th, 2014: 9:03PM PDT: The backup stage for batch #1 has completed, and the machines are rebooting into Ubuntu for OS installation.

Update October 11th, 2014: 8:29PM PDT: We’ll be running the upgrades in batches of 40, 40, 40 and 25 tonight. We’ve started the first phase for batch #1, the backup phase. The following web servers will not be upgraded tonight, as they still have active moves of PHP5.2 users:

stagecoach
king-george
radagast
deepthought
broadside
dade

springtime

culpeper

Upgrading 150 shared web hosting servers to Ubuntu 12.04 Precise – October 5th, 8PM – 1AM PDT (RESOLVED)

We’re continuing our roll-out of Ubuntu 12.04 Precise to an additional 150 web servers this Sunday, October 5th. As we’d like to get all of our customers over to this new OS, we’re planning on running these upgrades in larger batches. While the total estimated maintenance is 5 hours, we expect actual downtime due to the upgrade to be around 30 minutes. A large part of the maintenance window will be spent testing all of the servers post-upgrade to ensure everything is in order.

As the Ubuntu image will not support PHP5.2, anyone who still has this version of PHP selected in the panel will be migrated to a Debian server before these web servers are upgraded, and will still have until the November deadline to upgrade to a more recent version of PHP.

While this upgrade process is expected to go smoothly, there are some things you can do to reduce the chances of additional service interruption. Customers running  Ruby or Python applications should ensure that they are not linking to static versions of any required libraries, as library versions will change. Customers running custom PHP.ini setups should ensure they are pointing to PHP5.3 or higher as the PHP5.2 executable will not be present within Ubuntu.

Here is the list of web servers to be upgraded. You can check if you’re one of these web servers by clicking the ‘Account Status’ link within the DreamHost panel and looking for ‘web server’:

alexander-hamilton
arthur-middleton
baker
baldwin
baratheon
bedford
benjamin-franklin
benjamin-rush
benjy
bilbo
blout
brooks
buckwell
button-gwinnett
bywater
caesar-rodney
calhoun
caliber
caravan
cargo
carousel
charles-carroll
chattahoochee
chelsted
clinch
cloverleaf
cobweb
colquitt
companion
cowpuncher
craig
crossbow
crown
curbside
daniel-jenifer
dawson
dekalb
driftwood
edward-rutledge
elbridge-gerry
falcon
fenchurch
fireside
flying
fog
forward
francis-hopkinson
francis-lewis
francis-lightfoot-lee
gag-halfrunt
george-clymer
george-read
george-walton
gilmer
gouverneur-morris
hactar
halfback
handshake
harris
headlight
hedgehog
holly
huntsman
irwin
james-madison-jr
james-smith
jared-ingersoll
jasper
jeltz
john-blair
john-dickinson
john-hancock
john-langdon
john-morton
john-penn
john-witherspoon
jonathan-dayton
joseph-hewes
lamar
laurens
lewis-morris
lightfoot
lintilla
lizard
majikthise
maximillian
oglethorpe
oolon-colluphid
pacemaker
pass
pavillion
pincushion
prak
principal
rainbow
rappahannock
redfern
reliant
rhyme
ribbon
richard-bassett
richard-henry-lee
richard-stockton
ridgeline
ringside
robert-treat-paine
rockdale
roger-sherman
roosta
rufus-king
samuel-huntington
sandstone
saturn
scorecard
searchlight
shared-with-ssds
sheepskin
shotgun
slartibartfast
snowbank
strawberry
sundance
supervisor
thomas-jefferson
thomas-lynch-jr
thomas-mckean
thomas-mifflin
thomas-stone
tiller
timberwolf
tower
tranquility
troup
upson
vroomfondel
webster
wheeler
william-blount
william-ellery
william-few
william-hooper
william-livingston
william-samuel
william-williams
windstone
wowbagger
yooden-vranx
zarniwoop
zarquon
zem

If you have any concerns leading up to the upgrade, please don’t hesitate to contact our support team. They’ll be more than happy to answer any questions you might have!
While the upgrade is ongoing, we’ll keep this post up-to-date with new information as it becomes available. If you’d like to know more about the benefits resulting from our switch to Ubuntu, please read this post.

Update October 6th, 2014: 1:23AM PDT: All web servers are back online other than the ‘vroomfondel’ web server which is being restored to Debian due to latent hardware issues.  Baratheon, vroomfondel and zem will not be upgraded tonight.

Update October 6th, 2014: 1:00AM PDT: All web servers are now back online other than the ‘cloverleaf’ web server, which should be complete in about 5 minutes. The following servers were not upgraded tonight:

baratheon

vroomfondel

zem

Update October 6th, 2014: 12:33AM PDT: All web servers from batch #3 have been back online for some time. Some web servers from batches #1 and #2 have failed initial tests and will not be upgraded. They will be evaluated for future upgrades, or will be offloaded.  This post will be updated with those servers shortly.
Update October 5th, 2014, 11:36PM PDT: All but 12 servers have completed the upgrade to Ubuntu. They are all in the final stage and should be online shortly. The web server ‘zem’ will not be upgraded tonight, as it did not pass initial tests. It’s back online running Debian now, and we’ll look into the cause tomorrow.

Update October 5th, 2014, 10:42PM PDT: The upgrades are nearing completion. At this time we have 6 batch 1 web servers, 11 in batch 2 web servers and 10 batch 3 web servers which have yet to complete.

Update October 5th, 2014, 10:21PM PDT: Sites from all three batches are continuing to come back online at this time. We will update this post when everything has completed.

Update October 5th, 2014, 10:07PM PDT: The third batch of servers has completed the OS installation phase, and is now running final configurations. Web servers from the first and second batch are coming online now.

Update October 5th, 2014, 9:35PM PDT: The third batch of servers has completed the backup phase, and will be beginning the OS installation momentarily. The second batch of web servers is beginning final configurations. Sites from the first batch of web servers are continuing to come online.

Update October 5th, 2014, 9:10PM PDT: The third and final batch of web servers has begun the backup phase. The second batch of web servers is nearing completion of the  OS installation phase. Sites from the first batch of web servers are continuing to come online.

Update October 5th, 2014, 8:48PM PDT: The second batch of web servers is still in the OS installation phase. Sites from the first batch of web servers are now beginning to come online.

Update October 5th, 2014, 8:40PM PDT:  The second batch of web servers have completed the backup phase and will be beginning the OS installation stage. The first batch is nearing completion of the OS installation stage.

Update October 5th, 2014, 8:35PM PDT:  The second batch of web servers has begun the backup phase. The first batch is nearing completion of the OS installation stage.

Update October 5th, 2014, 8:12PM PDT:  The first batch of 52 webservers has completed the backup phase, and is now entering the OS installation stage.

Update October 5th, 2014, 8:04PM PDT: The first batch of 52 web servers is being backed up now. Once this step is complete the servers will reboot into Ubuntu for OS installation. We’ll be spreading the 5 servers which were not upgraded last night amongst the three batches being upgraded tonight. Those are ‘lupine’, ‘fountaingrass’, ‘oak’, ‘sassafrass’, and ‘gunnera’.

23 Responses to “Upgrading 150 shared web hosting servers to Ubuntu 12.04 Precise – October 5th, 8PM – 1AM PDT (RESOLVED)”

Upgrading 150 shared web hosting servers to Ubuntu 12.04 Precise – October 4th, 8PM – 1AM PDT (RESOLVED)

We’re continuing our roll-out of Ubuntu 12.04 Precise to an additional 150 web servers this Saturday, October 4th. As we’d like to get all of our customers over to this new OS, we’re planning on running these upgrades in larger batches. While the total estimated maintenance is 5 hours, we expect actual downtime due to the upgrade to be around 30 minutes. A large part of the maintenance window will be spent testing all of the servers post-upgrade to ensure everything is in order.

As the Ubuntu image will not support PHP5.2, anyone who still has this version of PHP selected in the panel will be migrated to a Debian server before these web servers are upgraded, and will still have until the November deadline to upgrade to a more recent version of PHP.

While this upgrade process is expected to go smoothly, there are some things you can do to reduce the chances of additional service interruption. Customers running  Ruby or Python applications should ensure that they are not linking to static versions of any required libraries, as library versions will change. Customers running custom PHP.ini setups should ensure they are pointing to PHP5.3 or higher as the PHP5.2 executable will not be present within Ubuntu.

Here is the list of web servers to be upgraded. You can check if you’re one of these web servers by clicking the ‘Account Status’ link within the DreamHost panel and looking for ‘web server’:

agapanthus
agba
ajuga
anemone
araucaria
ash
aster
astilbe
ayan
balsa
baptisia
barrenwort
basswood
bergenia
bloodroot
bloodwood
bluestar
boltonia
boxelder
boxwood
brazilwood
bubinga
buckeye
butternut
campion
candytuft
carapa
catmint
cattail
centaurea
chives
clematis
cocobolo
coleus
coneflower
coralbells
corkwood
cottonwood
cucumbertree
cypress
delphinium
dogwood
elm
eucalyptus
evolvulus
fennel
fir
fleabane
foamflower
fountaingrass
foxglove
fuchsia
gaura
gazania
gentian
geranium
goatsbeard
goldenrod
goldenstar
greenheart
grenadilla
gum
gunnera
hackberry
helenium
hellebore
hemlock
hibiscus
honesty
hosta
ipe
iroko
ironwood
jacaranda
kiwi
lantana
lavender
lemongrass
liverleaf
lupine
malva
maple
melon
merbau
mpingo
muscida
navi
nekkar
neshmet
nunki
oak
padauk
palisander
peacock
phad
pleione
procyon
propus
proxima-centauri
pulcherrima
ramin
rasalas
rastaban
redcedar
redheart
rigel
rotanev
ruchba
rukbat
sabik
sadachbia
sadalbari
sadalsuud
sadr
sal
salm
sandalwood
santamaria
sargas
sarin
sassafras
sceptrum
scheddi
schedir
seginus
sham
sheratan
situla
spica
spruce
subra
sulafat
syrma
tabit
talitha-australis
talitha-borealis
tambotie
tarazet
taygeta
teak
tegmen
terebellum
unuk
ushakaron
vindemiatrix
walnut
wasat
wazn
wezen
zuben-el-akrab

If you have any concerns leading up to the upgrade, please don’t hesitate to contact our support team. They’ll be more than happy to answer any questions you might have!
While the upgrade is ongoing, we’ll keep this post up-to-date with new information as it becomes available. If you’d like to know more about the benefits resulting from our switch to Ubuntu, please read this post.

Update October 5th, 2014, 12:11AM PDT: The upgrades have successfully completed. The following servers will be re-scheduled as soon as possible:

lupine, fountaingrass, oak, sassafrass, and gunnera

Update October 5th, 2014, 12:02AM PDT: The Ubuntu upgrades for tonight have completed. The following servers will be upgraded at a later date:

lupine, fountaingrass, oak, sassafrass, and gunnera

Update October 4th, 2014, 11:52PM PDT: All web server upgrades have completed other than ‘spruce’ which should be done momentarily. We are now testing to ensure everything is running properly.  The following web servers have had their Ubuntu upgrades postponed:

lupine, fountaingrass, oak, sassafrass, and gunnera

Update October 4th, 2014, 11:22PM PDT: Batch #1 & #2 have completed. 5 servers remain from batch #3. After all batches have completed we’ll begin testing to ensure everything is in order.

Update October 4th, 2014, 11:08PM PDT: Batch #1 has completed, and all sites are online. Batch #2 has two servers left to complete which should be done shortly. Batch #3 has 6 servers to go, and will then be complete.

Update October 4th, 2014, 10:37PM PDT: Sites from the third batch are coming back online now. The second batch is complete other than 5 servers and the first batch is all online except for 3 servers.

Update October 4th, 2014, 10:25PM PDT: The third batch has entered the restoration phase. The second batch is complete other than 5 servers, and the first batch has 3 servers to finish.

Update October 4th, 2014, 10:05PM PDT: The third batch has entered the OS installation phase. The second batch is still restoring and most servers from the first batch is now all online other than a few stragglers.

Update October 4th, 2014, 9:50PM PDT: The third and final batch of webserver has now started the backup phase. The second batch is now restoring and should be back online shortly. The first batch is now back online other than a couple of stragglers which should be up shortly.

Update October 4th, 2014, 9:45PM PDT: The second batch of servers is now running initial configurations. The first batch is 90% back online.

Update October 4th, 2014, 9:35PM PDT: Most of the servers from the first batch are now back online. The second batch is still in the OS installation stage.

Update October 4th, 2014, 9:15PM PDT: The second batch of servers has finished backing up and is botting into Ubuntu for OS installation. The first batch is completing configurations and should be back online shortly.

Update October 4th, 2014, 9:07 PM PDT: The second batch of servers has now begun the backup stage. The first batch is completing configurations and should be back online shortly.

Update October 4th, 2014, 9:00 PM PDT: The first 50 web servers have completed OS installation and initial configurations are now running.

Update October 4th, 2014, 8:30 PM PDT: The first 50 web servers have finished backing up, and are now booting into Ubuntu for OS installation.

Update October 4th, 2014, 8:08 PM PDT: We are now beginning the upgrade to Ubuntu. We’ll be running these upgrades in 3 separate batches 50 machines. This stage consists of backing up all existing configurations and data.

Upgrading 100 shared web hosting servers to Ubuntu 12.04 Precise – September 28th, 8PM – 1AM PDT (RESOLVED)

We’re continuing our roll-out of Ubuntu 12.04 Precise to an additional 100 web servers this week. As we’d like to get all of our customers over to this new OS, we’re planning on running these upgrades in larger batches. While the total estimated maintenance is 5 hours, we expect actual downtime due to the upgrade to be around 30 minutes. A large part of this time will be spent testing all of the servers post-upgrade to ensure everything is in order.

As the Ubuntu image will not support PHP5.2, anyone who still has this version of PHP selected in the panel will be migrated to a Debian server before these web servers are upgraded, and will still have until the November deadline to upgrade to a more recent version of PHP.

While this upgrade process is expected to go smoothly, there are some things you can do to reduce the chances of additional service interruption. Customers running  Ruby or Python applications should ensure that they are not linking to static versions of any required libraries, as library versions will change. Customers running custom PHP.ini setups should ensure they are pointing to PHP5.3 or higher as the PHP5.2 executable will not be present within Ubuntu.

Here is the list of web servers to be upgraded. You can check if you’re one of these web servers by clicking the ‘Account Status’ link within the DreamHost panel and looking for ‘web server’:

ailsabay
aken
alkan
amun
amunet
anhur
anuket
bach
ballechin
balvenie
bartok
berlioz
berwald
bes
brahms
brown
bunnahabhain
buri
caolila
cardhu
chopin
clementi
clynelish
copland
daftmill
dailuaine
demeij
dvorak
eir
eisler
el-dabh
elli
eostre
fitch
freya
frigg
fulla
gefjun
glenburgie
gliere
gorecki
haydn
henet
hlin
honegger
horus
hummel
inchgower
iusaaset
ivanovs
ives
kaelin
karlowicz
kashif
kebechet
khepri
koechlin
koppel
lagavulin
lange-muller
liszt
loch-lomond
lofn
mani
martinu
mccabe
mendelssohn
menezes
menhit
milhaud
nanna
north-british
nott
pakhet
panufnik
parry
part
port-charlotte
prokofiev
qebui
renenutet
rontgen
rubinstein
sallinen
schumann
shapiro
shostakovich
speyburn
strathearn
tchaikovsky
teaninich
the-speyside
tomatin
tomintoul
tormore
villa-lobos
whear
willson
wingate
witt

If you have any concerns leading up to the upgrade, please don’t hesitate to contact our support team. They’ll be more than happy to answer any questions you might have!
While the upgrade is ongoing, we’ll keep this post up-to-date with new information as it becomes available. If you’d like to know more about the benefits resulting from our switch to Ubuntu, please read this post.

Update September 28th, 2014, 3:11AM PDT:  Alright DreamHosters, thanks for staying up with us tonight! We’ve finished testing and are calling this all clear! If you run into any issues on your sites that you believe may be due to this upgrade, please contact our Technical Support team. They’ll be happy to help!

Update September 28th, 2014, 2:15AM PDT:  Our systems engineers are finishing up testing, and we should have the all clear soon.

Update September 28th, 2014, 1:25AM PDT:  Apache configurations are still running for those that aren’t yet online, and we’re continuing to run test suites to ensure everything is running as it should be.

Update September 28th, 2014, 12:43AM PDT: There are a handful of Apache services that haven’t come online properly due to issues binding with ipv6 addresses. These services are being configured now and should be running properly shortly.

Update September 28th, 2014, 12:25AM PDT: Sites are now coming online for  tormore, koechlin, panufnik, and fulla. All other webservers should now be fully operational and post-upgrade tests are executing.

Update September 28th, 2014, 11:49PM PDT: Sites should now all be online except for those hosted on tormore, koechlin, panufnik, and fulla. These machines should also be complete soon.

Update September 28th, 2014, 11:33PM PDT: Post-install configurations have completed, and sites are coming online now.

Update September 28th, 2014, 10:43PM PDT: This step is taking a bit longer than expected, but things are still progressing smoothly.

Update September 28th, 2014, 10:07PM PDT: Post-install configurations are wrapping up, and sites should begin coming back online shortly.

Update September 28th, 2014, 9:51PM PDT: Ubuntu OS installation has completed on all machines, package installation has finished on most, and post-install configurations have begun.

Update September 28th, 2014, 9:36PM PDT: Ubuntu OS installation has completed on most machines, and package installation has begun.

Update September 28th, 2014, 8:44PM PDT: The backup phase has completed successfully, and the web server are now being rebooted into the Ubuntu OS.

Update September 28th, 2014, 8:30PM PDT: We’ve started the upgrade, and are backing up configurations before rebooting into Ubuntu.

Update September 28th, 2014, 8:09PM PDT: We’ve started final pre-upgrade checks for the listed web servers.

36 Responses to “Upgrading 100 shared web hosting servers to Ubuntu 12.04 Precise – September 28th, 8PM – 1AM PDT (RESOLVED)”

Upgrading seventeen shared web hosting servers to Ubuntu 12.04 Precise – September 14th, 9PM – 12AM PDT (RESOLVED)

After a lot of hard work including preparations and thorough testing from our Systems Engineering team, we’re ready to move forward with upgrading our shared web servers from Debian 6 Squeeze to Ubuntu 12.04 Precise!

Upgrading to Ubuntu from Debian will provide a host of benefits, including the ability to maintain a stable release for a much longer time, while having security patches and backported packages available to our customers. With all that, we felt it was worth the efforts of making such a significant change.

We’ve upgraded six web hosting machines to Ubuntu so far, and things have gone swimmingly.

We’re now going to upgrade seventeen additional shared web servers:

applewood
artemisia
avens
bluebeard
bunchberry
burnet
columbine
coreopsis
deadnettle
dianthus
flax
globeflower
lovegrass
meranti
mint
pherkad
wenge

 

We estimate the maintenance window to be three hours, but expect around 30 minutes of actual downtime. You can check if you’re one of these web servers by clicking the ‘Account Status’ link within the DreamHost panel and looking for ‘web server’.

If you have any concerns leading up to the upgrade, please don’t hesitate to contact our support team. They’ll be more than happy to answer any questions you might have!
While the upgrade is ongoing, we’ll keep this post up-to-date with new information as it becomes available. If you’d like to know more about the benefits resulting from our switch to Ubuntu, please read this post.

Update September 14th, 2014, 11:45 PM PDT: We’ve verified that everything is running properly, and we’re now calling this complete!

Update September 14th, 2014, 10:30 PM PDT: All services are now back online, and we’re now double checking to ensure everything is in order.

Update September 14th, 2014, 10:24 PM PDT: Sites are now coming back online, and the upgrades should be completed momentarily.

Update September 14th, 2014, 10:17 PM PDT: We hit a small snag during  final configurations, which has now been figured out. Final configurations are resuming and we should be finished soon!

Update September 14th, 2014, 9:40 PM PDT: Package installation has completed, and configurations are running now.

Update September 14th, 2014, 9:26 PM PDT: The OS have finished installing and packages are now being installed.

Update September 14th, 2014, 9:21 PM PDT: The servers have booted into Ubuntu and the OS is now installing.

12 Responses to “Upgrading seventeen shared web hosting servers to Ubuntu 12.04 Precise – September 14th, 9PM – 12AM PDT (RESOLVED)”

WordPress 4.0 Major Release Now Available

Baboom!

Can you believe we’re on 4.0 already?

For all the wicked details, check out the official WordPress release notes for 4.0 “Benny”. I’m in love with the new media library gallery! Getting to see all my images like that makes it easier for me to see if I’ve already uploaded that cool picture of my cat as a beard before I upload it again for a new post. If you’re one of those people who adored the old way, though, and had extra columns of joy, don’t worry. You can switch right over and change your view. Also the way the post editor sizes itself to match my screen has made it easier to write epic long posts about how my cat hates being a beard, and that’s how I got this scar on my face.

Over the next few days, this update will be automatically handled for all customers who have automatic upgrades enabled, including those on DreamPress. If you used our One-Click Installer to install WordPress, you can check your settings, and change these preferences directly, by visiting the DreamHost One-Click Panel. Once there, click “Manage Installed Applications,” select the domain, then look under the Upgrade Action column for details.

By the way, WordPress uses semantic versioning, so in WP speak, 3.9 and 4.0 are the same level of absolute super-awesome. Don’t let that scary point-oh version number freak you out; we’re WordPress, not Windows.

If you run into issues after your upgrade, remember to report any problems you have with specific plugins and themes to those developers on WordPress.org (or the dev’s website)! The WordPress core devs work really hard to make sure everyone tests, but you know how real life gets in the way of real life? It happens.

7 Responses to “WordPress 4.0 Major Release Now Available”

Upgrading five shared web hosting servers to Ubuntu 12.04 Precise – September 4th, 9PM – 12AM PDT(RESOLVED)

After a lot of hard work including preparations and thorough testing from our Systems Engineering team, we’re ready to move forward with upgrading our shared web servers from Debian 6 Squeeze to Ubuntu 12.04 Precise!

The main reason for upgrading from Debian to Ubuntu is that it will provide a host of benefits, including the ability to maintain a stable release for a much longer time, while having security patches and backported packages available to our customers. With all that, we felt it was worth the efforts of making such a significant change.

We’ve already completed the upgrades on some backend machines including  VPS host machines, mail servers and the shared web server ‘daugherty’.  As the upgrade for ‘daugherty’ went as planned, we’re now going to upgrade five additional shared web servers:

whale
talisker
laphroaig
nephthys
scriabin

We estimate the maintenance window to be three hours, but expect around 30 minutes of actual downtime. You can check if you’re one of these web servers by clicking the ‘Account Status’ link within the DreamHost panel and looking for ‘web server’.

If you have any concerns leading up to the upgrade, please don’t hesitate to contact our support team. They’ll be more than happy to answer any questions you might have!
While the upgrade is ongoing, we’ll keep this post up-to-date with new information as it becomes available. If you’d like to know more about the benefits resulting from our switch to Ubuntu, please read this post.

Update September 4th, 2014, 10:35 PM PDT: We’ve verified that everything is running properly, and we’re now calling this complete!

Update September 4th, 2014, 9:50 PM PDT: All sites are online, and we’re now double checking to ensure everything is in order.

Update September 4th, 2014, 9:50 PM PDT: Sites are now coming back online and the upgrades should be complete momentarily.

Update September 4th, 2014, 9:20 PM PDT: Package installation has completed, and configurations are running now.

Update September 4th, 2014, 9:20 PM PDT: The machines are now booted into Ubuntu and installing packages.

Update September 4th, 2014, 9:12 PM PDT: The machines are now actively installing the Ubuntu OS.

Update September 4th, 2014, 9:03 PM PDT: We’ve started the upgrade and will provide further updates as it progresses.